Dancing Nani leads Portugal's new generation

Just how good is Nani? Is the Portuguese whippersnapper ready to compete immediately for a first-team place at Old Trafford when he arrives next season? There is a sneak preview tonight as the latest youngster to inspire Manchester United to part with a multimillion-pound transfer fee is one of the star attractions of the Uefa Under-21 Championship that begins today.

United have made a habit of expensive, yet rewarding attacks on the youth sector of the transfer market in recent years. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney are still eligible for the under-21s. Together with Nani, the three were reeled in for a combined sum of more than £50million.

That Ronaldo and Rooney are enjoying some well-earned rest while Nani - and another young United attacker, Giuseppe Rossi of Italy - will spend the next two weeks on junior international duty demonstrates how there is a clear divide among the eight teams. Some, such as Serbia and Israel, are selecting their strongest squad and gladly include players who were with their full national team last week. Others acknowledge there are some special cases and the very best have bypassed this age group. You can imagine how a phone call from Stuart Pearce to Alex Ferguson enquiring about Rooney's availability would have gone down.

Historically, some major talents have used the under-21 tournament as a useful stepping stone. Zinedine Zidane, Rudi Voller, Davor Suker, Roberto Mancini and Luis Figo all flourished on this stage.

Nani is obviously marked out as one to watch now that word of his potential has spread outside Portugal. When growing up he was a big admirer of Figo and has been working hard to emulate that example. He is taken aback by the speed of his development, though. 'Things have happened very quickly, suddenly,' says the winger. 'I'm surprised, but very pleased.'

The 20-year-old is one of a handful of promising players in a team that have the Portuguese wondering if they might be witnessing the creation of a new golden generation. Joao Moutinho, one of Nani's friends from Sporting Lisbon, and Werder Bremen's big centre-forward Hugo Almeida were in the full Portugal squad that won in Belgium last weekend. Midfielder Miguel Veloso, another to have emerged from the famed Sporting academy, has been tipped by Luis Felipe Scolari as 'on the verge' of a breakthrough to the senior team. PSV Eindhoven's centre-half Manuel da Costa is said to have caught Chelsea's eye. Portugal appear to have young talent to burn.

Portuguese Football Federation president Gilberto Madail explains: 'It's a time of natural satisfaction for all those who excitedly follow our national teams. It's a particularly good year for our youth football. Of four final phases of big competitions which will be played in 2007, under-21, under-19 and under-17 Euros, and the Under-20 World Cup, Portugal will be present in three and we only missed out on the under-17s by one goal [goal difference against Iceland]. This success brings a lot of prestige to Portugal.'

This U21 championship is up for grabs, especially as Spain, who have been one of the best nations in youth football for some years, failed to qualify. Neither did usual suspects France, who were ousted in the play-offs by Israel.

If Portugal arrive in Holland as one of the tournament favourites, their main threat comes from Italy. The Azzurrini have won five out of the past eight finals at this level. Coached by Pierluigi Casiraghi, the Italians spent last week carefully preparing what is a reasonably experienced squad at the national team's main headquarters at Coverciano. 'We have to consider the condition and age of the players as it's the end of a long season and I don't want to ask too much of them,' he said.

Casiraghi has a strong strikeforce at his disposal, with Rossi fresh from a confident spell on loan at Parma where he scored nine goals in 19 Serie A games. Fiorentina's Giampaolo Pazzini has already made a big impression on England as the scorer of a hat-trick in the first warm-up game at Wembley in March. Another Fiorentina boy, playmaker Riccardo Montolivo, is regarded as one of the most exciting prospects in Serie A. Italy play England on Thursday in Arnhem.

There are two groups of four in the tournament and the top pair in each group go straight into the semi-finals. Portugal, from Group A, and Italy, from Group B, fully expect to progress.

If, along the way, there is a dazzling goal from Nani, expect to see his trademark somersault celebration, based on the Brazilian martial art dance, capoeira, which he used to practise as a boy. 'I had to leave capoeira, but whenever I've scored a fantastic goal I've celebrated it with a death leap,' he says.